What Did Alice Paul Contribute To The Women's Suffrage Movement

Of the women’s suffrage movement and its contributors Alice Paul stated, “I always feel...the movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end.” Thousands of women were behind the passing and ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920 from Susan B. Anthony to Lucy Burns, a close friend of Paul’s. However, Paul was being too modest in her previous statement. She contributed much more than a little stone to the mosaic that was the women’s suffrage movement. In geological terms, Paul contributed an entire boulder to the movement because without her the 19th amendment would not have been passed or ratified as quickly as it was. Alice Paul’s traditional Quaker upbringing, time spent in England among radical suffragettes, and determination even at the expense of her own life, to see women …show more content…
Alice Paul was raised in a conservative Hicksite Quaker home where men and women were equally expected to contribute to society's benefit. She remained in the Quaker community throughout college, graduating from the prestigious Swarthmore College in 1905. This extensive amount of time that Paul spent growing up and learning among people who not only believed in gender equality but also applied it as they attempted to improve society, greatly influenced and strengthened her beliefs as well as her drive to obtain women’s suffrage. Carol, Meyers, and Lindman write for the Alice Paul Institute article “Who Was Alice Paul” that “Alice’s faith not only established the foundation for her belief in equality but also provided a rich legacy of activism and service to country.” It seems